Dole, Robert J. (Robert Joseph), 1923-2021

<p><b> Politician. Republican. Born: July 22, 1923, Russell, Kansas. Served in U.S. House of Representatives, 6th and 1st Districts: January 3, 1961, to January 3, 1969. Served in U.S. Senate: January 3, 1969, to June 11, 1996.</b></p>

<p>Robert Joseph “Bob” Dole was born in Russell in 1923, to Doran Ray and Bina N. (Talbott) Dole. As a boy growing up in western Kansas during the Great Depression, he worked a number of odd jobs. Forrest "Phog" Allen went to Russell to recruit Dole to play basketball at the University of Kansas. After attending KU from 1941 to 1943, Dole joined the army; he served as a combat infantry officer in Italy and was twice wounded. He was hospitalized for 39 months and was awarded two Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star with an Oak Cluster for military service. He married Phyllis Holden in 1948. They had a daughter. After the war Dole attended the University of Arizona from 1948 to 1949. He graduated from Washburn University Law School in Topeka in 1952. After his admission to the Kansas bar, Dole returned to Russell to practice law.</p>

<p>Dole first ran for office in 1950 and was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives, serving a two-year term. He was county attorney of Russell County for eight years. In 1960 Dole was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives from the Sixth Congressional District in northwest Kansas. In 1962 his district was merged with the Fifth District in western Kansas to form the First Congressional District, a huge 60-county area. Dole was re-elected that year and twice thereafter.</p>

<p>After eight years in the House, he won election to the U. S. Senate in November 1968. While in the Senate, Dole served as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1971 until 1973, was the ranking Republican on the Agriculture Committee from 1975 to 1978, and majority leader and chair of the Finance Committee in the 1980s and 1990s. He became known as an advocate for veterans and the disabled.</p>

<p>Dole was the G.O.P. nominee for the vice-presidency in 1976, serving as Gerald Ford's running mate. With the Republican convention in Kansas City, Dole later introduced Ford to his home town of Russell at a political rally on the courthouse lawn. He served as senate majority and senate minority leader in the 1980s and 1990s. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidential nomination in 1988. He resigned his seat in the Senate on June 11, 1996, after capturing his party's presidential nomination.</p>

<p>Dole and his wife, former North Carolina senator Elizabeth Hanford Dole, live in Washington, D.C., where the former senator practices law and is involved in numerous areas of public service.</p>

<p>He was the Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas' Distinguished Kansan of the Year in 1976. Dole received the Presidential Citizens Medal in 1989, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1997, and the American Patriot Award in 2004. He was named the Native Sons and Daughters' Kansan of the Year in 2003. The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics was established in 2003 in Lawrence in his honor.</p>